


A Tale of Two Cities

by Beguile



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Brothers, Family, Family's Complicated, Feelings, Gen, Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-25 04:50:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20370973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beguile/pseuds/Beguile
Summary: Half the time, the customers know more about Foggy than Theo does.Some snapshots of Theo and Foggy, from season one to three.





	A Tale of Two Cities

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DJClawson](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJClawson/gifts).

> Written for DJ Clawson, who requested anything regarding Theo and Foggy’s relationship. I have to admit, I struggled a little in the beginning with this one, but the dynamic was so different from anything I've written so far. There's sections in here that were really gratifying to write. This prompt was a rewarding challenge. 
> 
> A special thanks to Dichotomy Studios for beta-ing!
> 
> Enjoy!

* * *

Theo’s bad days always come with a breaking point. The latest in a series of misfortunes hits him, and it strikes Theo that this is all Foggy’s fault. All of it: the butcher shop, the neighbourhood, Mom and Dad, the kids, even. His, Theo’s, being _here_ in some lowly part of Hell’s Kitchen cutting carcasses and slinging meat across a countertop, the smell of cured meat baked, by this point, into his DNA, it’s all Foggy’s fault. Foggy, who was just so stupid-smart at everything. Foggy, who just had to go off to university, who had to start the closest thing to a Mom-and-Pop law firm in their own backyard and become the apple of their parents’ eye, the talk of the neighbourhood. Yep, this is all Foggy’s fault. Theo wouldn’t be here if not for Foggy.

The thoughts bubble over into the real world. Theo puts an order down a little too hard on the counter, he slams the till stronger than he means, he’s sharp with a customer, and then he catches himself. How ridiculous he’s being. This isn’t the life Foggy built; this is the life his parents’ built, and Theo doesn’t hate taking part in family tradition. He loves their little corner of Hell’s Kitchen. His kids get to wake up and see their grandparents every day. He is here because this is the life he chose and made for himself, and he can’t – he _doesn’t _– begrudge Foggy for doing the same, even if Foggy chose different.

“It would be awful having you around all the time,” Theo even goes so far to tell Foggy one night. “Talking with every customer. Asking about this, that, and the other thing.”  
  
“Because you never talk to the customers,” Foggy interjects.  
  
Theo continues, “Giving discounts because somebody made you laugh! You’d never get anything done, never make any money. I’d still be running this place on my own.”

Foggy smiles good-naturedly, almost apologetically, and the animosity Theo has simmering below the surface cools. He can’t muster the strength to stay mad. Whatever point he was trying to make about it being good that Foggy’s gone comes right back towards him: taking over the shop was his choice, continuing to run the shop is his choice, and he will wake up tomorrow morning and make the same choice.

Besides: “I’m proud of you,” he tells Foggy. “You’re a terrible butcher, but you look like you’re not a half-bad lawyer.”  
  
“That means a lot coming from you,” Foggy replies. That smile still hasn’t left his face.

Theo looks away, unable to stand the sight much longer. Always a fine line with Foggy, between here and there, and Theo walks it every day.

* * *

Phone service is out the night of the explosions, so the call doesn’t come until morning, when they’re opening the shop.

Thank God it’s him answering the phone. Mom and Dad couldn’t handle their golden child being hospitalized during the previous night’s attack. They would be closing down for the day, shuffling the kids’ sleeping arrangements to make room for Foggy while he recovers. Even if they could afford to lose a day of business, they’re the oldest business on the street. People need a place to be together today, and Nelson Meats is going to be available to them.

Theo flips the sign to OPEN. Mrs. O’Leary greets him with her worries about the neighbourhood, how she hasn’t heard from her children. She’s quickly joined by Shannon and his friends, all of whom want counsel with Dad. Mom takes up her spot at the till without being asked, and though Theo makes some excuse about checking with neighbours, she is shooing him out the door.

Worry propels him to Metro-General. Relief sees him through the door of Foggy’s room. Foggy is standing, donning a coat, starting to look like a lawyer instead of a patient. He looks over his shoulder, his eyes widening with worry. “What happened?” he asks. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? Mom, Dad, Aileen, the kids – is everyone okay?”  
  
Theo bristles at the questions. “Are we okay? Yeah, we are. We’d be better knowing you were okay! What happened? How did it happen?”

Foggy goes back to adjusting his jacket, straightening his tie. “I’m fine.”  
  
“You’re in the hospital!”  
  
“But I’m fine! It…I…I was helping a client when the explosions started.”  
  
“Helping a client…” Theo groans. Genius Foggy, humanitarian extraordinaire. Is there anything he can’t do?

“I got cut, okay? But they stitched me up. They’re sending me home! I’m being released on medical advice!”  
  
Again, it should be calming, but Theo is even angrier now. “You know Mom and Dad are home right now, thinking you’re safe? Do you know what it would do to them, to know you weren’t? That you aren’t? That you could have died?”

“But I didn’t!”

“But you could have!”  
  
“But I didn’t!” Foggy shrugs.

Theo shakes his head, infuriated. With how cavalier Foggy’s being, for one thing, but the lawyer clothes and the lawyer pose, the lawyer tone, it’s annoying. It gives Theo the impression of being played. “This is just another argument for you. Big shot Columbia grad –“  
  
Foggy sighs, his face falling. Feels good to see it, at least at first. “Theo.”  
  
He has to pull his eyes away at the last second to keep it up. He isn’t really mad at Foggy or that he went to Columbia or that he became a lawyer. He never is. This has never been about Foggy. “I’m glad you’re okay,” Theo says, and he means it. He is glad that his little brother is okay.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Foggy agrees. “Everybody is okay, right?”  
  
“Yes, everybody’s fine.”

“Do Mom and Dad-?”  
  
“No, they don’t know. I didn’t tell them.”

“Thank you,” Foggy says.

Theo bristles at that. “Why did they even call us anyways?”

“Um, you’re my medical contact?” Foggy says, making it sound obvious. “Well, Mom and Dad are, but you’ll do.”

“Would have thought Matt was your medical contact,” Theo replies, trying not to sound sullen as he does.

“Matt?” Foggy sounds like he hasn’t even thought about that before. “No. Why would you think that?”  
  
A lot of reasons, but none of them are worthy of being said aloud. “He’s your legal partner,” sounds like the most rational.

Foggy shrugs. “You’re my brother.” And that’s that, apparently.

Theo sighs, his anger diffusing, giving way to something else. He lets his emotions stand, the whole lot of them, competing for attention and outright contradicting each other. How the hell is it possible to feel this much for one person? He’s a simple guy, uncomplicated. It’s Foggy who got all the complexity in the family.

They walk out of the room together. Foggy winces with every step. “For such a good lawyer, you’re a really bad liar,” Theo points out.

“I said I was fine,” Foggy counters, “I never said I didn’t hurt.”

“Are you really going to work like this?”  
  
“There is nowhere I would rather be right now,” Foggy replies. He presses the button for the elevator. “You should be at work too. Shop’s gonna be busy today. People will need a place to go.”  
  
Theo tries to hide his surprise. It’s easy to forget, when Foggy’s in a suit and tie, where he comes from, but Foggy clearly hasn’t. “Already on it,” Theo says.

Foggy smiles. “I know you are.”

* * *

Holidays are the one time Foggy can be relied on to visit. He arrives with Matt and their new secretary, Karen, for Thanksgiving. The three of them are under-slept. “But we eat well!” Foggy reassures Mom, who is fussing over him. “We have a never-ending supply of food, courtesy of our clients.”  
  
“How about a never-ending supply of money?” Theo suggests. “You could always use that to buy food.”  
  
“My brother, ladies and gentlemen,” Foggy says, putting an arm over Theo’s shoulders. Always did burn a little hotter than everybody else, Foggy did. He could heat up a room just by standing in it, bring everybody a little bit closer together to share in the warmth. Theo stands there, pressed tight to his little brother’s side, aware of how dwarfed he is in Foggy’s presence. If he shuffles a little to the side, he could disappear completely into his brother’s shadow.

He shakes Karen’s hand, then Matt’s. They make some conversation. Karen seems nice, certainly grateful for the opportunity she’s gotten since Matt and Foggy helped with her case. There’s a guardedness to her that Theo isn’t used to; the Nelson’s aren’t a guarded people. She’s similar to Matt in that way, though a little less deft at dodging questions she doesn’t want to answer, a little less likely to turn the attention back to the person who asked than Matt.

Matt’s good with the kids though. He’s good with all the Nelsons: always interested in talking shop with Mom and Dad and Theo, seeks out Aileen to ask about her. Most importantly, he’s good with Foggy. Theo watches the two of them when they’re on their own, and Matt comes alive in ways he isn’t with the other Nelsons. He smiles a bit easier. The words flow freely. Whatever defences he has in place with others, he doesn’t have with Foggy. 

* * *

The call from the hospital comes as even more of a shock next time. It’s all over the news: shooting at the District Attorney’s office, one dead and one injured. Theo never thought it would be Foggy, but he never thought it would be Foggy caught in the explosions either.

He also never expected to be the one the nurse asked for on the phone. Not Mom, not Dad, not Matt: him. Foggy must have changed his medical contact since the last time he got hurt.

Theo tells Dad about it this time but swears the old man to secrecy. Mom’s out front in the shop closing up with Caroline and her kids, loving life. “I’ll be gone and back before you know it,” Theo promises. He dons his coat and walks a block, saying hi to a few folks along with a line about needing to pick something up. It gives him an excuse if anyone reports back to Mom that they saw him out and about.

Foggy isn’t standing when he gets to Metro General. Little brother is asleep in a hospital bed, mouth wide open. The nurse says he’s going to be fine; the bullet grazed him deep, but it didn’t hit anything major. Theo asks if he can stay a bit, not really sure what the protocols are. He’s about to hit her with an impassioned _that’s my brother _speech, but she just smiles and points to the chair by the bed. She helps him with the phone, too, when he asks how to call the shop.

Dad answers. He’s got this covered. Theo relays the news that Foggy’s fine but he’s staying for a bit, almost letting it slip that this is the second time he’s visited Metro General in the span of a year.

“Can’t afford groceries,” Theo comments to no one. “Don’t know how you’re going to afford this, Fog. Maybe the DA’s office’ll pay for it. Or you can hold a bake sale from the donations your office is getting.”  
  
Teasing his sleeping brother doesn’t bring any kind of relief. Theo settles more deeply into the chair. “What the hell were you even doing in the DA’s office anyways? What does that have to do with…whatever it is you’re doing?” God, he doesn’t even really know. The news shows Foggy walking in and out of the courtroom for the Punisher case, but without a Thanksgiving or an Easter or a Christmas, that’s all anyone knows about him. “You’re four blocks away from me, and I don’t even know what you do,” Theo says. “You get shot, and I don’t even know why.”  
  
His eyes rove the hospital room, the powder blue walls and cream curtains and sunset outside the window. Nurses bustle outside the door. There are flowers on the table, but that’s it, that’s all.

Theo sits up straighter. “And why am I the only one here?” he asks. Karen, Matt – there was only one other person shot besides the DA, and he’s lying in the bed with only his older brother for company.

Doesn’t make any sense. Theo scans the hospital, half-expecting a team of supporters to come through those doors, but nothing. His genius brother, the golden child, the prodigal son, he’s alone. His best friends aren’t even there to keep him company.

Foggy shuffles in the bed. He blinks, groggy, a dazed expression on his face. Theo pounces on him, taking him by the arm. “Hey, Foggy.”  
  
“Hey,” Foggy says.

“You’re okay.”  
  
“’m okay.”

Theo doesn’t worry about parsing through whether he’s believed or parroted. “You get some sleep,” he says, clapping Foggy a couple times to get the point across.  
  
“Yeah,” Foggy closes his eyes again. “Night.”  
  
Theo is content to go at that moment. He’s done his job. But the thought nags at him, regardless of whether Foggy’s capable of explaining it or not. “Hey, Foggy.”  
  
“Mmm?” Foggy’s eyes open just a crack.

“Where’s Karen? Matt?”  
  
Foggy sighs. “Karen’s working, probably.” Another sigh. “And Matt’s…I don’t know. Jumping around on a rooftop somewhere.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Night,” Foggy says again, rolling over slightly towards his good side.

Theo drops back into his chair. The nurse said he might be disoriented, but Foggy sounds like he’s on another planet.

“Oh, but –“  
  
“Yeah?” Theo leans towards where Foggy’s lying, desperate to hear what’s coming next. Who.

“But Marci should be here.”

Theo is stunned. “Who the hell is Marci?”  
  
Foggy is already asleep again.

* * *

Nelson’s is bustling with people: children darting under glasses of Scotch and bottles of beer while the adults swing back in laughter and loud conversation. Foggy appears, solo again, dressed in a new suit, and no sooner has he hugged Theo and grabbed a drink do the questions begin.

Dad is impressed. “What’s the occasion, Foggy?”  
  
“I have a new job,” he says. “Nelson & Murdock is closing it’s doors, and I will be joining the legal team at Hogarth, Chao, and Benowitz.”

“What’s Matt doing?” Mom asks. Always worried about him.

Something crosses Foggy’s face. He tries to hide it with a smile and a shake of his head, but Theo catches it. “Matt’s…going to do his own thing. Not sure what that is yet.”  
  
“You can’t get him a job with you at your new firm?” Mom urges.

Theo takes the pressure off Foggy with, “He’ll manage. He’s a big boy, Mom. He can take care of himself.”  
  
He half-expects Foggy to give some sarcastic remark, but Foggy is too busy drinking to comment.

Mom and Dad leave them behind the counter together, heading off to mingle with others. Theo takes the opportunity to ask, “Everything okay between you two?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Foggy replies. “Honestly, I’m not sure I care?”

That doesn’t sound like him. Usually, Foggy is firmly on Team Matt, about as defensive of Matt as Mom _and then some_. Theo’s mind wanders back to the hospital, to Foggy there by himself. The decision to close the firm couldn’t have come about overnight.

The sight of the shop only intensifies Theo’s sense of disappointment. He sees his family every day. He knows who Aileen’s friends are, knows what his kids are up to, knows about the latest gossip, can see his parents, can check on them if he’s worried.

“Hey,” Foggy says, tapping him on the arm. “What’s up?”  
  
Theo shakes his head. “Nothing.”  
  
“What is it?” Foggy urges.

He isn’t going to win. Not against his fancy-pants brother, best lawyer in the city. “I feel like I don’t even know you sometimes. A lot of the time.”

“Hey,” Foggy comes closer to him, “There’s nothing to know.”  
  
“Yeah, there is. Matt’s been your best friend for years. You two have been thick as thieves. He’s basically family. And now you’re not working together? You’re showing up here by yourself?”  
  
“I can call Matt if you-“

“No, no, that’s not…” Theo’s trying to figure it out, but he’s never been able to put words to it. He says he loves his wife, his kids, his parents, he means it. He says he loves Foggy, he means it. But the things that go along with that, the not knowing, the finding out too late. “I tell people my brother’s a lawyer, but half the time, the customers know more about you than me. You’re dealing with their landlords for them or getting something off their records. Now you’re moving to some big law firm, and…”

This isn’t what they’re supposed to be talking about. Foggy’s got apologies all lined up. He’s getting even closer, trying to bring Theo back, and Theo feels like shit because this isn’t what he means to say. “I’m happy for you.” That sounds right. “I’m proud of you. This new law firm – they pay cash?”  
  
“Yeah,” Foggy says, smiling. “Yeah, they pay cash. Bet I can even expense a catered lunch for everyone from the best butcher shop in Hell’s Kitchen.”

“You better,” Theo says.

* * *

They see even less of Foggy once he starts his new job, but at Easter, the trio is back together: Karen chats excitedly about her job at the paper, Foggy sports a new watch and comes bearing presents, and Matt, well, Matt looks the same. He seems a little distracted when he talks to Theo, to Mom and Dad. He doesn’t take as much time with the kids as he used to. “He’s doing pro bono work,” Foggy says, beaming with pride. Karen claps Matt on the shoulders supportively. He kind of sags between them, his cane the only thing keeping him upright.

“Are you sure he’s alright?” Mom asks.

“He’s fine. He’s…adjusting. To work,” Foggy says.

Theo is just relieved that Foggy seems like he’s in high spirits. Whatever’s going on with Matt doesn’t seem to weigh him down. He talks openly about work, about Marci (when Mom’s not in earshot). He asks about the shop, asks if there’s anything he can do to help.

“We’re fine,” Theo assures him.

“Well, let me know!” Foggy replies. “I’m here if you need me. Always.”

* * *

Not after Midland Circle he’s not. After Midland Circle, Foggy isn’t even there for Mom’s birthday. Calls to him go straight to voicemail and are rarely returned. When they are, it’s just another opportunity for Foggy to comment on how busy he is, how little time he actually has to talk.

“You know what? Forget it,” Theo says, racing to hang up before Foggy can. Bigshot lawyer probably has a client right there, right now. Probably on a date with his equally hotshot girlfriend who the family still hasn’t met, by the way. He’s finally making money, always sending the kids these lavish gifts. He gives Mom a trip for the birthday that he misses. He could solve their problems, no questions asked, but instead, he’s too damn busy to listen for five minutes.

Dad is in the kitchen, a glass of Jameson’s in his hand. The list of suppliers, of contacts, spread across the table. Red lines through some of them, scribbles on others. The books open and glaring, the future as grim as the dwindling figures running down the right side.

“I’ll handle it,” Theo assures him. He tries not to look again at the card from the bank. “We’ll handle this.”  
  
“He’s family,” Dad says.

“But he’s not here! He’s never here, Dad! He can’t take five minutes out of his busy life for a phone call!”

The bad days come back to him in a flurry: could be him out there. Aileen, him, the kids in a house, a real house, instead of some crumby apartment that smells like cured meat all the time. But then it hits him how shitty it would be, how shitty it is to turn your back on family. Foggy didn’t put him here. Foggy made his choice. Now Theo makes his. He grabs the card from the bank. “We’ll handle this,” he says. Then he makes the call.

* * *

Happy reading!


End file.
